Malta School Board offers early retirement to 8

The Malta School Board passed a motion at their monthly meeting last Wednesday night which will allow up to eight teachers to retire early and early indications are that at least seven will take the school board’s offer and retire at the end of the year.

Malta Schools Superintendent Kris Kuehn told the Malta trustees that the early retirements would help with next year’s budget and allow the school to avoid letting go non-tenured teachers or cutting program offerings.

“In other words, during a budget crunch, sometimes the most palatable option is to offer a retirement incentive whereby natural attrition relieves pressure on the general fund rather than having to non-renew non-tenured teachers or eliminate a program or programs,” Supt. Kuehn said.

Due to declining enrollment the General Fund Budget will increase $15,585, while built in salary increases will cost the district $36,500, leaving a $20,915 shortfall.

Supt. Kuehn said he was requesting a total of eight early retirement incentives and that he had been told that seven were likely to take the offer. The Malta School Board Trustees voted unanimous, 5-0, to approve the retirement offerings, accepting retirements as early as the following morning (March 15) at 7:30 a.m.

“I think for the interest of the district, it is something that we have to consider if we want to continue to move forward with salaries and to have a base where we can draw new teachers in,” Trustee Carter Clausen said, prior to the motion being voted on.

At press time the seven faculty members had signed irrevocable resignations to take advantage of the Retirement Incentive. Those teachers are Lynne Brewer, Cindy Christman, Heidi Lulloff, Lynne Nevrivy, Amy Schye, and Larry and Barb Swingen.

In Malta Senior Class news, Senior Officers Joanie Sjostrom and Macy Knudsen attended Wednesday night’s meeting to ask the Board of Trustees to approve this year’s senior trip, requesting to be allowed to travel to the Edmonton Mall in Canada. Sjostrom said that students will have many options as far as things to do at the mall were concerned (including a water park and an amusement park.) After Sjostrom and Knudsen made their request, Malta High School Principal and Activities Director Scott King informed the board that if this year’s senior class was allowed to go to Edmonton, it would be the first time in many years, as the last time the trip was made to Edmonton(2000), students were caught consuming alcohol.

Board policy at the time stated that any student caught under the influence of alcohol on the senior trip would forfeit their right to attend the graduation commencement. After the drinking allegations were investigated, Principal King said that nearly half the senior class was found to have violated the policy and weren’t allowed at the school’s official graduation commencement (two ceremonies were held that day, one official at the school and the other, unofficial, at the football field.)

Principal King said that he was in favor of allowing the senior class to head back to Edmonton this year, because he hoped that it would do-away with unofficial skip days for seniors, and then discussed a laundry list of items to assure that seniors would not be consuming alcohol on this year’s trip to Canada (including bag searches and breathalyzers before leaving for Canada and then on the way home.)

The Board of Trustees approved the trip to Edmonton. The trip — scheduled for late April and including a 1,200 miles round trip — will leave from Malta at 8 p.m. on a bus and return the following day so no overnight lodging for the seniors will be required.

MES Report

During Malta Elementary School Principal Theodore Schye’s report, the Board of Trustees learned that current enrollment at the school is at 233, down one student from last month.

Principal Schye said third quarter grades will be sent home on Friday, Wednesday (March 21) is parent-teacher conference day and that on Thursday (March 22) the school would be hosting their annual Bringing Up Grades (BUG) assembly in conjunction with the Malta Kiwanis Club, honoring students in the fourth and fifth grade (with the pages of upcoming PCN’s for photos of the students.)

MMS Report

Malta Middle School Principal Shawn Bleth said that Malta students were joined by five other schools at the recent Honor Choir Concert and that nearly 120 students took the stage during the day.

“Mr. Swingen did a great job with that,” Principal Bleth added.

Principal Bleth said that the third trimester honor roll was recently released (see page 4A of this paper) and that several students had done well at the regional science fair recently held in Havre (see page 4B.) On April 6, Delmer Henry’s history class will be at the Phillips County Museum for the second installment of the “Wax Museum” in which students give oral history (while in costume) of folks from Phillips County’s past.

MHS Report

Principal King said that the third quarter recently ended and that the high school Academic Olympics was attended earlier in the day by students and results will be available soon. He said juniors will be taking ACT tests the beginning of this week and a handful of students will soon be heading to the University of Montana in Missoula for “Journalism Day.”

During his activities report, Principal King said many of the school’s clubs are heading to state meets and that both track and golf seasons are underway.

“We just watched a 30-second video of a rotary snow blower at Glasgow, blowing snow off of the track,” he said.

The first high school golf meet is scheduled for March 23 and the first track meet, in Glasgow, is slated for March 29.